October 3, 2013

How a Growth Roadmap Drives Financial and Personal Growth in Turbulent Times

Too many of these same companies are saving their way to profitability rather than driving top-line revenue growth as employee engagement continues to fall.

By Guest
Blogger Rick Miller

Here’s the good news: Many companies are announcing record profit levels.
Now for the bad news: Too many of these same companies are saving their way to profitability
rather than driving top-line revenue growth as employee engagement continues to
fall. While markets have risen, there is a clear concern about whether this
growth is sustainable. In my experience, revenue, profit, and personal growth are all attainable and sustainable in tough
times using a proven Roadmap.

As a senior business turnaround specialist, I have worked with
teams facing daunting business challenges ranging from poor culture and product
shortfalls, to external issues like illegal competitive activity and market
crashes. In each case, I relied on the All-In Roadmap as a guide. Independent
of industry or whether I was in a startup or multinational, each time our team
succeeded.

I created the All-In Roadmap, providing evidence that strong
performance can be sustained even in tough times by focusing on a set of
actions and personal attributes. A famous fighter once said that a plan is fine
until you get hit in the mouth. In my experience, when things get tough it’s
both the plan and your execution that determine success. The All-In Roadmap includes a balanced focus
on five areas: discipline, support,
creativity, insight, and values.

Success requires
a key component—discipline. I define
this as an orderly pattern of behavior that increases the likelihood of a
desired outcome. For example, you must develop effective dashboards that
include leading and lagging indicators. Do you have detailed plans linked to your
strategy? Can you adjust quickly? Do you maximize the probability of your
team’s success with strong discipline?

Support is the
act or process of promoting the interests of another. First, truly successful
leaders offer great support by being the example. Are your words consistent
with your actions? Is your team properly trained for the battle and recognized
when they achieve goals? Do you go the extra step and take responsibility to
“set others up” for success? Do you do all you can to support your team?

Creativity is
defined differently in my model. The All-In Roadmap advocates that creativity
is actually the ability to manifest or create the future. It is up to you to
“make things happen.” Do you listen to your gut feelings? Do you manage your
thoughts? Do you speak your words carefully, write deliberately, and act in a
way that will align each of these? Do you create fully and consciously?

Insight is the
power or act of seeing intuitively that comes with self-understanding. You are
most effective when you engage in actions that are consistent with who you are.
Here are five ways you can learn more about yourself. Can you choose to be
present and focus on the task at hand? Can you be still long enough to get in
touch with your own voice? Can you accept what is? Are you generous and
grateful? How well do you really know yourself?

Values are the
foundation of great relationships. And great relationships can be characterized
by a number of values including compassion, forgiveness, respect, empathy, and
kindness. How visible are your values? Can team members clearly see your values
in how you speak, write, and act? Do you respect the values of others?

Although my approach is research-based, it has also been
called unconventional. Regardless of one’s opinion, it works. It’s why I was
hired by AT&T in 1995 as the first outsider in 100 years to take over a
poor performing business unit. Three years later, employee and customer
satisfaction reached record levels while the revenue growth rates grew from $3B
to $5B.

At a time when so many organizations face challenges,
consider using a proven Roadmap to ask the right questions. Revenue,
profit, and personal growth are all
attainable and sustainable, even in tough times.

About the author

Rick Miller
is a CEO with over 30 years of experience including CEO/President roles in
Fortune 10, nonprofit, and startup companies including AT&T, Opus 360, and
Lucent Technologies, where he was recruited to turnaround poor performance.
Rick is a confidential advisor to senior executives, and is extensively
connected within the global business and leadership communities. Follow@BEINGCHIEF

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